Finding Rewards in Home Care

Children served: From birth through age 5 from northeast Tarrant
County.

Average cost: $90 per week up to 18 months; $70 over 18
months.

focus: A preschool educational program called High Reach
Learning, special holiday activities, music, Bible verses, lunch, two
snacks, and an afternoon nap.

North Richland Hills, Texas

The joys and frustrations of Darla Mitchell's 20-year career as a
family-child-care provider are captured in 2-inch-thick photo albums of
birthdays and holiday parties. Her proudest moments are recorded on
home videos of a graduation program she presents for her children's
families every spring.

All those memories bring meaning to the daily toil of changing
diapers, whipping up meals that meet federal nutritional guidelines,
and planning educational activities filled with music and movement for
the nine young children in her care.

Watching the video of last year's spring production, modeled after
the Vacation Bible School programs she attended as a child, she
remembers how much she dreads speaking in front of the roughly 80
parents, grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, and neighbors who attend
the annual event to watch the young performers.

"When I'm doing this, I start thinking about the kids, and I get
emotional, and then my voice starts to crack," Mitchell said. "This is
about making the parents stop and think that their kids are not going
to be this age ever again."

From 7:30 a.m. to 5:30 p.m., Monday through Friday, only the living
room in this suburban Fort Worth house is off-limits. The children
spend most of their time in the family room, where toys are stacked on
shelves and colorful cutouts on the wall announce each child's
birthday.

Known to the children--and their parents--as Ms. Darla, Mitchell
offers her 2-, 3-, and 4-year-olds a ready-made curriculum from the
High Reach Learning company in Arden, N.C.

A border, filled with the faces of horses, cows, pigs, and goats,
frames the doorway into the family room, reminding the children of this
month's theme, "on the farm." Songs, stories, and even the morning
snack--biscuits and jam--reinforce the lesson.

"Why do pigs roll in the mud?" Mitchell asks the children. "It keeps
them cool."

Mitchell also cares for a 9-month-old and two toddlers who fiddle
with toys during the morning "school time," often pausing to watch the
six older children as they dance around the La-Z-Boy recliners
pretending to be elephants or helicopters. Two of the younger children
are siblings of Mitchell's preschoolers.

In addition to her regular rates, Mitchell charges parents a $10
per-month curriculum fee for her program, but that doesn't cover the
costs of all the materials, toys, and special activities she plans,
such as her recent hiring of a $100 clown to cap off a circus theme
month and the moonwalk ride she rents every Easter.

Ms. Darla and Friends, as she calls her program, almost never has
openings, and she's never had to advertise. Satisfied parents serve as
her referral agency.

Susan Cline, who put her son Tyler into Mitchell's program when he
was 9 months old, recently pulled the 5-year-old out to enroll him in a
sought-after private kindergarten run by a local junior college because
she thought he would benefit from being around more children his own
age. Cline, however, wants Tyler to return to Ms. Darla's this summer
and to continue going there after school when he enters public
kindergarten this fall.

"She's very firm but very loving," Cline said. "Some of those things
are missed in regular day-care settings."

Mitchell entered the formal family-child-care system in Texas when a
cousin turned her in for operating without a license. But instead of
being bitter, she's grateful for what turned out to be the beginning of
a more professional, more rewarding career. One training course led to
the next. She now is a co-president of her local provider association
and also has earned accreditation from the National Association for
Family Child Care.

While her attachments to the children are strong, she's worked hard
not to get too involved in the families' lives.

"I have come long strides in that department," she says. "I've had
connections with kids that I've stayed up nights worrying about."

She attends training sessions several times a year but says some of
that becomes redundant.

"There's only so many ways to change a diaper," she says. "A lot of
it is just common sense."

Mitchell says she derives a lot of satisfaction just from
socializing with other providers and by staying in contact with the
children and their parents years after they've left her program.

"Child care is definitely a parent-provider partnership and feeling
appreciated is a big motivator," Mitchell says.

She wishes, however, that more parents would ask about her
credentials when they visit for an interview. "Mainly, it's do you have
an opening, when can I start, and how much do you charge?" she
says.

About a year ago, she gave herself a raise, she says, by expanding
from a family-child-care home to a group home, meaning that she can
care for as many as 12 children, depending on their ages.

Mitchell doesn't object to the licensing guidelines set by the state
but believes the inspectors should have been home-child-care providers
themselves at some point.

While the provider-child ratios are much larger in Texas than in
some other states, Mitchell doesn't feel as if she's taking care of too
many. Even when she's fixing their lunches, she knows if the older
children are trying to spook each other in the darkened hallway or if
the baby has crawled behind a chair looking for toys. The size of the
group, however, doesn't allow her to spend any one-on-one time with the
children.

She finally sits down for a break after lunch when all nine
children--even the two 4-year-olds--scatter to their respective mats
and playpens for a nap.

While she feels overwhelmed once in a while, she's learned that
those feelings pass with time.

"I feel like I'm in my prime," Mitchell says. "This will probably
carry me on into old age."